First Day in Yosemite

Hi Blog.  Today is Thursday, October 24th and our first full day in Oakhurst, California - the gateway to Yosemite National Park.  We started our day getting Eddie and George out to explore the campground.  Our campground is right long the Fresno River.  We are across the river from two schools - Oak Creek Intermediate School and Oakhurst Elementary School.  After school, you can hear the sounds of kids at play.  Here are some of the cool rock formations in the river.

After breakfast, we drove into Yosemite National Park.  Our first stop was the Wawona Visitor Center at the south entrance.  The Pioneer Yosemite History Center is located next door.  To preserve historic structures in the park, they were relocated to Wawona.  Each building represents a different chapter in the development of Yosemite.  This covered bridge was built in 1857.  All Yosemite-bound traffic crossed this bridge.

We took a self-guided tour among the various buildings.  There were example of a homestead cabin, artist cabin, blacksmith shop, calvary office, ranger patrol cabin, bakery and a Wells Fargo Office, which still had the original furnishings.

After leaving Wawona, we wound our way up and up until we entered the Wawona Tunnel.  Here is the view that greeted us as we at the Tunnel View pullout.  The big guy on the left is El Capitan.  Half Dome is in the distance toward the right.

Here is Great White in the shadow of the Cathedral Rocks.

We soon found ourselves on the valley floor following the Merced River toward the Vistor's Center.  We made it just in time to catch the fall color.

We stopped at the Visitor's Center and watched a short movie on the spirit of Yosemite.  We also picked up lots of maps, hiking guides and information on camping in the valley.  We have reservations to camp Sunday night and Monday night, so we will be back to explore some of the hiking trails in the valley.

It was getting late and we had a long drive home, but we had time to catch late afternoon light on the valley floor:

Here is one more look at the valley wrapped in fall color.

Just before we entered the tunnel on the way back, we stopped to take a sunset photo of Yosemite Valley.

We stopped again just after the tunnel to bid a good night to El Capitan and Half Dome.

We are looking forward to spending more time in the valley.  Until then, we'll explore the Oakhurst area and see what there is to see.